My main question is, how should I go about installing Ubuntu, I would prefer to have it run on the SSD on which I already have Win8 installed. I have read on a tutorial, that Ubuntu has problems with running next to Win8 on an SSD, is this true? Should I run Ubuntu on the 2TB HDD (which I rather not due to performance differences). If running on the SSD, how much space of the SSD should I allocate to Ubuntu (currently 120GB free space)?

How should I partition the SSD or HDD depending on which to use. I read on this forum that Ubuntu will wear off the SSD if I don't tweak some stuff, what are those tweaks?

Are there any settings or things I should consider in the BIOS? I have looked around for Intel Rapid Technology and couldn't find it, no info on ASUS website either. What other things should I consider? My memory is currently set manually to run on 2133 MHz, is that okay for Ubuntu 12.10?

Also I ran Ubuntu from the install DVD to see if it works, and I had issues with the dual monitor setup main monitor Samsung 24" (1920*1080) secondary monitor Samsung 17" (1280*1024).When I turned both monitors on to their native resolution in Ubuntu, they both lost signal.

1 Answer
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I have read on a tutorial, that Ubuntu has problems with running next to Win8 on an SSD, is this true?

I am running Windows 8 and Ubuntu both on one SSD and I have no issues at all. Although there are a few things to consider.

make a backup before installing ubuntu!

disable Fastboot in Windows 8 because it can cause issues (you can find it in the energy options)

how much space of the SSD should I allocate to Ubuntu (currently 120GB free space)?

My Ubuntu 12.10 installation currently takes 5,2GB with some essential programs installed. My / (root) partition has 20GB in total and I think that's fine. The rest goes for the /home partition.

I also have a 4GB swap partition (size of RAM) but this is not really necessary. You could also make a swap file on the root partition and save those 8 GB for your data. With your 8 GB of RAM a swap partition is only needed for using hibernation. I would advice some Google search for swap files in this case.

How should I partition the SSD or HDD depending on which to use

/ ~20GB/home available rest

I read on this forum that Ubuntu will wear off the SSD if I don't tweak some stuff, what are those tweaks?

As far as I know Ubuntu by default mounts all partitions with the relatime (like noatime) parameter which reduces the access activity and increases the lifetime of your SSD. So there is no action required.

What you should do is triggering the TRIM command from time to time. Simply run this for all your partitions located on your SSD in your terminal:

sudo fstrim -v /
sudo fstrim -v /home

You can also let Ubuntu do this for you by creating a cronjob. Just create a file e.g. named batched_discard in /etc/cron.weekly/ for weekly execution or in /etc/cron.daily/ for daily execution. And then paste the code from above into this created file.

There is also an option to mount some of your logging folders like /var/log as a tmpfs in your RAM to reduce the write operations on your SSD. But this way all log files are gone after rebooting your system. I wouldn't recommend it. Current SSD are strong enough to handle this in my opinion.

Are there any settings or things I should consider in the BIOS? I have looked around for Intel Rapid Technology and couldn't find it, no info on ASUS website either.

The important setting in your Bios is that the AHCI option is set for your SDD. This should be a standard setting. As far as I know you can't change it if there is already something installed on this device. So be careful with that.

I have looked around for Intel Rapid Technology and couldn't find it, no info on ASUS website either. What other things should I consider? My memory is currently set manually to run on 2133 MHz, is that okay for Ubuntu 12.10?

I have no idea what Intel Rapid Technology is, I wouldn't bother about it. If your system runs without crashes your RAM MHz setting should be no problem. This is nothing ubuntu specific.

Also I ran Ubuntu from the install DVD to see if it works, and I had issues with the dual monitor setup main monitor Samsung 24" (1920*1080) secondary monitor Samsung 17" (1280*1024).When I turned both monitors on to their native resolution in Ubuntu, they both lost signal.

Since you are using a NVIDIA card I would suggest using the proprietary nvidia driver and see if that works. After installing Ubuntu run

gksu software-properties-gtk

And click on the last tab called additional drivers. There you can choose the NVIDIA binary driver.